Episode 142: 2 Roman Roads - Are we CURRENTLY “of the flesh, sold under sin”? or “set free” and “in the Spirit”? or Both/And?

TEXT - ROMANS 7:14-24

2 "Roman Roads" of Interpretations - Romans 7
1. Paul is describing his current
situation/struggle as a Christian - Portrays the
experience of believers after their conversion. They
have died and risen with Christ with the capacity to renounce
sin. Yet as children of Adam, they continue to possess a sinful
nature that dogs their well-intended efforts to do what is right.
This sets up the struggle that Paul presents in this chapter. It
is his struggle and every believer’s struggle until the return of
Christ.



2. Paul is describing his past before Christ -
Romans 7 presents Paul’s description of his own struggle
prior to his conversion to Christ. Paul describes the
unregenerate state in which he (and, by extension, others)
struggles to do what is right [under the law] and confesses to
sin’s repeated victories prior to the entrance of the Spirit into
his life.

ROMANS 7 Commentary/Interpretation

“If Paul was describing the dilemma of a Christian in verses
13-25, then “in my spirit” (rather than “in my inner being”)
would have been the natural phrase to describe the source of a
Christian’s longing for God. But Paul avoids “S/spirit” language
throughout this whole passage since it DOES NOT APPLY to the one
who does not belong to Christ”. (pg. 745, Life in the Spirit New
Testament Commentary)  



“Most of the early church fathers thought that these
verses described an unregenerate person. Augustine as
well, but he changed his position after the controversy with
Pelagius. Almost all of the reformers held to the regenerate
interpretation. It was the basis of Luther’s ‘simul iustus et
peccator.’” (simultaneous justified and sinner) - Nick
Campbell 



“It should be of interest to the reader that Romans 7 was
never interpreted as a believer in the first 300 years of the
Christian Church.” – James Shelly



“The Greek Fathers, during the first three hundred years of
church history, unanimously interpreted this scripture as
describing a thoughtful moralist endeavoring, without the grace
of God, to realize his highest ideal of moral purity. Augustine,
to rob his opponent Pelagius of the two proof-texts, originated
the theory that the seventh of Romans delineated a regenerate
man” - Dr. Daniel Steele

“The more ancient teachers of the Church had unanimously
explained it of the man who has not yet become a Christian, nor
is upheld in the struggle by the Spirit of Christ” -
Tholuck



“Among those who reject this teaching (a regenerate man in vv.
14-25), the view of the Greek fathers prevails. It is worthy of
note that this is the earlier opinion and was accepted by nearly
all who spoke as their mother-tongue the language in which this
epistle was written.” - Joseph Abgar Beet


 


“In analyzing the early Christian understanding of Romans 7 it
has become very clear that the early church did not understand
this passage to teach the necessity of sin in believers, usually
attributing to it the interpretation that it was a man who was
striving to please God under the Law of Moses. In fact, this
interpretation was so prevalent that when discussing this passage
around 415AD, Pelagius [said]… 'that which you wish us to
understand of the apostle himself, all Church writers assert that
he spoke in the person of the sinner, and of one who was still
under the law...' Augustine, in his attempt to refute this
statement of Pelagius, was unable to offer any church writers who
disagreed with Pelagius.” - Daniel Jennings



TEXT - ROMANS 6:1-7, 11-22

TEXT - ROMANS 8:2-13

DO WE STILL HAVE A "SIN NATURE"?
We have a “sin nature” before we were saved. As believers, we
have the Holy Spirit living within us. We still have an unrenewed
mind.  In as much as our mind is unrenewed, we still have
ungodly emotions.  But this is NOT our Nature now. I have
sinful propensities in my emotions and in my thinking, but they
are getting changed little by little (process) the more I renew
my mind.  To say I have no sin propensity, even though I no
longer have a sin nature, isn’t true.  I have propensities
to sin in my emotions, my thinking and my bodily desires but NOW
have the ability to challenge them and have victory… Some people
over-exaggerate it and say we have none of this and they are
living in total unreality and dishonesty to say that they don’t
have sinful thought processes, emotions or sinful desires in your
body.



Roman 6:11 – “Consider yourself to be DEAD TO
SIN” 



Meaning - Sin nature killed = free from the mandatory reign of
sin, not sinful “feelings”) - “It didn’t say that sin is dead in
you. It didn’t say there are no more sinful promptings in the
life of a believer. It doesn’t say you’ll never feel anger again.
It didn’t say that sinful feelings are dead in you. That is NOT
what is says and that’s how a lot of people read it… It says that
you are dead to the ‘reign of sin’… You are no longer in the
place where you are under the mandatory slavery of sin.  The
feelings still arise, but you have the power to challenge
them”.



2 Cor. 5:17 - “Therefore if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new
things have come.”



Gal 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Christ…